


On the Hunt

by printfogey



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-25
Updated: 2012-04-25
Packaged: 2017-11-04 07:21:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/391246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/printfogey/pseuds/printfogey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin's lost an object of value to her. Zoro takes it upon himself to search for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the prompt "Zoro + your choice, someone's lost something (important or not) on the ship, and he's looking for it". The lead-in is set years earlier, but the bulk of the fic takes place after Water 7/Enies Lobby and before Thriller Bark. Suggestions for improvement and other feedback quite welcome.
> 
> Disclaimer: The characters and situations of One Piece are rightfully owned by their creator, Eiichiro Oda. They are used here without permission for entertainment only. This fic is not to be used for profit, nor should it be reposted anywhere without the writer's consent.

It was far from a high-class restaurant, but it was no dingy diner either; rather firmly in the medium-range when it came to prices, menu and decor. Her own meagre savings would just about suffice for a simple meal of soup, unless she decided to let someone else pay, but then again that might make the total sum of the evening's earnings lower. Well, it was still early yet - and it could be that she'd find out something interesting that would be worth more than one might get from raiding this place. 

She took a table in the back and gracefully accepted a menu from the waiter, as always trying her best to look older and more experienced than she was. It seemed to work this time, judging by his respectful demeanour. He retreated, leaving her to peruse the menu and, as it happened, start to look around at the clientele trying to judge who to start spying on first.

Her interest was caught by a pale, dark-haired man in glasses, looking to be in his mid-thirties, who came hurrying in almost getting his bag stuck in the door, then looked around nervously, spotted a stodgy-looking sandy-haired man about the same age and quickly walked over there to sit down at the same table with his bulky, heavy-looking bag beside him. The man pushed up his crooked glasses and started to talk earnestly to the other.

Now, what could that be all about? She decided to start her eavesdropping with these two.

*

Eight years later, Lolonoa Zoro was climbing down the foremast from his domain up in the crow's nest on Thousand Sunny. It was only a few days after they'd left Water 7 and he was still getting used to the new ship. As he approached the lawn deck he saw Robin standing a few metres away, gazing into the air with a frowning, uncertain look on her face. This was an unusual sight, enough to make him pause, his last steps down the mast much slower than the rest.

"You looking for something?" he asked.

Robin gave him a preoccupied kind of nod, one hand cupping her chin, the other holding her elbow. She turned around and then around again, looking all around her at the grass and the deck and the billowing sails, but mostly she seemed to be looking inwards.

"So it appears," she said in a low voice. Zoro raised an eyebrow. Her voice sounded thicker and hoarser than normal, and her face, he noticed now, looked hot and shiny. Did she have a fever? 

Before he could say anything, Robin closed her eyes and raised her crossed arms as usual when using her powers. "Ojo de Fleur", she said. 

Zoro saw an eye appear up on the foremast, but not anywhere else around them. Well, that only made sense that she'd bloom eyes on places out of sight from where she stood now.  
There were several long seconds before Robin slumped and opened her eyes again. 

"No luck?" asked Zoro. 

She shook her head. "It's either somewhere completely dark, or some spot on the ship I haven't memorised yet. If it is indeed still on the ship." That last was added in a gloomy tone, rather unlike her normal style.

"So what are you looking for?" he said.

"An archaeological tool... a trowel," she said, "very useful for identifying layers of soil in excavation, and I myself use it for scraping off layers of deposits at times." She nodded in the direction of the tangerine trees up on third deck. "I wanted to see if I could use it while gardening as well... not very wise," she sighed. 

"But," she went on, her voice getting even hoarser, "I've gone over and over the flower bed and I can't have left it there. I must have brought it down with me when Nami was calling out about the flying fish earlier, with one landing on the lawn... but I can't see it anywhere here either. How... vexing..." she trailed off, putting a hand on her forehead. 

"Hey," said Zoro, "if you can't find it, couldn't you just ask Franky to make you a new one?" 

"I suppose..." said Robin vaguely, but she didn't look too happy at the thought, and kept walking here and there scanning the ground. Then she suddenly swayed, and bloomed arms from the deck to steady herself.

"If you're sick, maybe you should take it easy," Zoro suggested. Robin waved this away.

"It's nothing, I'll be fine," she said curtly. 

Well, far be it for Zoro to stop anyone from wanting to push their bodies in order to do what they felt were important. Unless they actually collapsed, and Robin hadn't done anything like that. So he just nodded and started doing push-ups where he was, keeping an eye on the meandering Robin until the dinner-gong sounded a few minutes later.

* 

Others in the crew felt differently about that kind of thing, though, and at dinner Nami soon noticed Robin didn't look well. Chopper pronounced a verdict of influenza and between him and Nami she was soon carted off to bed. Nami set up a temporary bed for herself in her study so Robin could sleep in peace.

Zoro started to climb back up to the crow's nest to train again, then paused, backed down a few steps before changing his mind again and climbing the whole way up. But he didn't stay, just scanned the whole place intently, then grabbed two weights and climbed back down. 

If he was going to do this, he had to look _everywhere_. Robin could be mistaken about where she'd been, and no-one knew better than Zoro that sometimes things and places just wouldn't be where they were supposed to be. This big new ship of theirs was no exception to that; privately Zoro thought that while Franky had done a great job overall, he could have stood to build things a little less confusing and labyrinthine. Then again, pretty much all builders tended to be that way in his experience.

Lifting and lowering his weights as he walked, he started to wander through the ship, going wherever his feet took him, his sharp eyes scanning his surroundings on the lookout for a missing trowel. Luffy, Usopp and Franky all asked him what he was up to at different points, but he just muttered something and waved them away.

Tangerines and flower bed and mini-Factory, bridge and helm and figurehead, lawn and the boys' room and an extra-space closet, the aquarium-fishtank-bar, the infirmary... 

Nothing. Or rather, quite a few other loose things lying around, even though they'd only been on the ship for three days... but nothing looking remotely like a trowel. Night fell and he had to leave it and go to bed, once he could find the bed.

In the morning, he took two other, bigger, weights, and got going again. He had no clever ideas about where to look, he just kept looking, over and over.

The galley, the observatory-library, Franky's study and Usopp's workshop below deck, store rooms, lawn and trees and swing... the bridge again, the tangerines again... steps up and down, railings and yardarms and ladders... 

Over and over. It was a hot day, the faint breeze not helping much in dispelling the heat.

He was about ready to give up for the day when he spotted a dark hole in the middle of the deck, as excited voices drifted down from the bridge.

 

*

Robin wasn't used to being able to stay in bed and getting fussed over when she was sick, not that she was sick very often. It was nice, in a way, though also a bit embarrassing. She was a little too weak to care much, though, and spent most of the first evening and the following morning asleep, drifting through confused fever dreams. Chopper and Nami looked in on her regularly, and Sanji turned up ever so often with cool drinks, hot soup and ice cream - small helpings only, as he seemed to understand she couldn't handle more. 

Towards the second evening she finally felt more stable. Not quite strong enough yet to trust herself to walk all the way to the galley and back for supper with the others... but she did sit up in her bed to read for a while, getting out a notebook in case she thought of something to jot down.

Then she heard two sets of footsteps approaching her door, and Chopper's high voice in a scolding tone. The other person was quiet, but she thought she recognised that particular beat and weight to the steps. Although those steps sounded more tired than usual...

There was a rap on the door and then, without waiting for her to answer, Zoro stumbled in followed by a frowning Chopper in Heavy Point. As she'd thought. Robin sat up straighter in her bed. Then she blinked.

Zoro had big clots of earth in his hair, stains of dirt, grease and grass all over his clothes, with even a few stray blades of grass sticking to his haramaki. His face and arms sported more dirty smudges but also several big bruises and scuff-marks. What on earth... 

Before she could even raise a mildly questioning eyebrow, he'd dug into his pocket, brought out something small and made as if to throw it to her - only to seemingly change his mind and instead put it down carefully on top of her coverlet, right above her knees. 

"Is this the one?" he asked.

For once, Robin didn't even try to hide the pure delight and blissful relief that washed over her. She smiled a wide, silly grin as she picked up the trowel, turning it over and making sure it was really there and in decent shape. Both handle and blade seemed just fine.

She nodded as she looked up at the swordsman, though the answer must be clear on her face already. Zoro grinned in reply, looking proud - it was a brief smile, but it had been there. 

"So- so _that's_ what you were after?" Chopper exclaimed. "One of Robin's things had gone missing?" Zoro nodded curtly; Chopper looked at Robin, who smiled, holding up her palms and shrugging, too happy to feel embarrassed. "Well, why didn't you _tell_ us?" Chopper asked Zoro, but he just shrugged.

"Where did you find it?" said Robin. She had intended to add, "Mr Swordsman", but found herself stopping; somehow she didn't like the sound of that anymore.

"Uhh..." Zoro didn't seem very forthcoming, but Chopper immediately jumped on the question, "Robin, he's just crazy! Me and Luffy and Usopp were up by the helm 'cause Franky was going to demonstrate the Docking System again, and he pulled a lever that opened the hole in the lawn deck leading down to it, and this idiot just jumped down without even saying anything!" He swatted Zoro on the shoulder and glared at him; Zoro just muttered, "Oi, stop that," taking a step aside.

"So we didn't know and then Franky pulled another level to bring out the paddles, just for show, and all that machinery started moving around and some of it hit Zoro so he got all beat up - "

"I did not, those things were pansies-"

"- and the whole thing started to make an awful whining noise so Franky stopped it and opened the lid again and Zoro climbed out. And now he doesn't even want to let me take a look at him and make sure he hasn't broken any ribs or anything else!"

"I told you, I'm _fine_ ," growled Zoro, moving another step away from the reindeer. "Anyway," he said to Robin with a bit of smugness in his tone, "I was right, it had fallen down there before. It was lying on Nami's Waver." 

“I see,” said Robin. “Remarkable.” Her smile was smaller now, but no less heartfelt. She tried to think of the right words to say, though her convalescent head still felt more sluggish than usual.

Chopper changed into Brain Point and looked conflicted, as he kept looking at the trowel and Robin’s content face, then back up at the unabashed Zoro.

“...I guess it _was_ kinda cool of him,” he muttered, “but it was still dumbass, too! ...but cool... but pretty stupid...” He rallied and pointed at Zoro accusingly. “Even if it was cool in a way, you should still let me examine you! I’m going to get my bag and some bribes, ‘cause I’m not giving up!” He hurried out of the room.

Zoro looked at the closing door, scratching his hair. "Bribes, huh... Anyway, guess I should be going."

"One moment. Please." Zoro glanced at her and didn't move for the door. Having drunk from a glass of water on the bedside table, Robin went on, "You must have spent quite some time looking for my lost trowel. Right?" Unless the crazy dive into the ship's machinery was his very first move, which even for Zoro didn't seem very likely. 

"Eh. Some," admitted Zoro. "Brought my weights along, so I still got in some training."

"But _why?_ Because you were right, you know. I could simply have asked Franky to make me a new one."

Zoro leaned on the doorframe and folded his arms over his chest. "Yeah. But you didn't want to, did you? Seemed important to you, that thing."

"Hm." Robin looked down at her treasured tool, letting her fingers trace the decorations on the wooden handle. "Well, it's not... it's not a remnant of Ohara, if that's what you were thinking," she said on impulse, a wish to explain coming over her. "I didn't get to bring anything from there except the clothes on my back." 

Zoro shrugged in a way that seemed to indicate he hadn't really been thinking anything at all. Robin continued, "No… this came from someone I met twelve years later, at twenty years old. A man that I robbed." She smiled a little wryly. 

"I don't really care," Zoro said in a flat voice. "No need to tell me."

But she wanted to tell him. For once, she felt like sharing something of her past, chipping away at the years to reveal a memory. Something that had made her smile at the time, odd though it might seem to others. "I'd been told by the captain of the crew I was with at the time to gather in 20 million berries that day or I couldn't get back on the ship. I'd been thinking of doing some pickpocketing and perhaps a discreet burglary, but I ended up robbing a whole bar at point blank. I was holding a gun, and kept the use of my powers to a minimum.

"You see, there was this man there, who had brought a big bag and now he kept talking to a friend, looking worried..."

_She had missed the first part of what the thin man in glasses had told his friend, but there was more to come. Robin bloomed an ear and started to eavesdrop in earnest as the stocky man replied._

_"You're exaggerating," he said firmly. "Why would the government care if you like looking at old ruins as a hobby? You're not trying to find out anything bad, right?"_

_"That's what I thought before," mumbled the thin man in glasses, biting his lips as he plucked at his sleeve nervously. He was sitting at the edge of his seat, bent forward, talking low but fast. "But now I understand... why the tools were so hard to find and yet cheap once I stumbled over them, why the bookshop owner was so eager to sell me those books at half-price... It's... it's like... someone way high up thinks that_ all _archaeologists could be like, like the 'Devils of Ohara'... so now you need a license to be one..."_

_The stocky man shrugged, though he'd begun to look uneasy. "Well, get one then? Or just stop, it's just a hobby for you anyway."_

_The thin man shook his head violently. "I can't get a license..." his voice came close to a whisper, "...asking for one is even a trap if you don't have great connections and no f-flaws in your background, I, my teacher was arrested after she applied, and she wasn't a bad person... You know, you met her, right?" He sighed heavily, drinking deeply from his cup of coffee with trembling hands._

_"I_ am _going to give it up," he continued. "Took all the books and my tools out of the home, so if they come knocking tonight, they won't find anything..." He gestured at the big, lumpy bag at his feet. The other man looked at it and pulled his feet away from it._

_"What are you going to do with that?"_

_"I don't know," the thin man in glasses said, leaning his head in his hands. "I did try to sell the books in another bookshop... the owner threw me out. I guess... guess I'll have to throw them away somewhere, but that might look suspicious if I'm seen... Unless you want to..." he trailed off as he saw the stiff expression on the other man's face, and then he simply nodded, understanding._

"...So that's when I barred the door to the restaurant and drew a gun on everyone there, telling them to give me their money and everything else they were carrying," Robin said calmly. "Of course, it was entirely self-serving. I wanted those books and tools, and why not get them for free? And the robbery of the whole restaurant also gave me the amount of money the captain had asked for."

"Not very discreetly, though," Zoro commented. He had sat down at the foot of the bed now, on the edge.

"I did have to run and hide some right afterwards," Robin conceded. "Still..." She smiled again, not quite as wryly as before, "...I've never seen someone look so happy and relieved to be robbed, before or since. Now the evidence of his subversive hobby was gone, and it wasn't even his fault - _he_ hadn't gotten rid of it. He had an excuse."

"Good," said Zoro, nodding.

"Yes. Mind you..." it was her turn to shrug, "...over the years I've still lost most of the things in that bag, running from one place to another. He had ten books, all good, but I only managed to bring two of them with me from Alabasta. And I lost all the other tools as well. But this one's the best of them." She patted the trowel in her hands, then carefully put it aside on her bedside table. "And I'm glad... I'm glad it wasn't lost in the sea or destroyed. This thing was made to help digging out history... I'm glad it can do what it's meant to." She probably sounded sappy. At least only the swordsman was there to hear it.

"You know what?" he said now, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "You could still ask Franky to make you a new one. To use for gardening."

Robin blinked. Why hadn't she thought of that? "That's a really good idea, Mi-" She stopped. And repeated, more softly, "That's a great idea, Zoro. Thank you."

Zoro's eyes widened. Did he also realise it was the first time she called anyone in the crew by their name, except for Luffy and Franky? Robin felt a bit amazed as well. This was uncharted territory. 

"Just a thought," he said gruffly, then got up. "Okay, see you tomorrow. Bye."  
And then he was gone.

Robin pulled up the covers again and got back to reading, but soon put the book aside to write in her notebook again, trying out some new theories of hers (all written in code). Free from most of the fever, her mind seemed to work even better than normal. Maybe the relief of getting the trowel back had something to do with it. 

From outside the room she heard the muffled but comforting sounds of the crew, including a clash of two voices, high and low, that could only be Chopper cornering Zoro again. She chuckled a little, wondering if whatever bribe Chopper had dug up - she bet it contained alcohol - would do the trick. 

It was getting late. She wondered if she ought to take a nap, but held off on it. Sanji was sure to show up and bring her supper very soon; and she was starting to feel just a little hungry.


End file.
